


Captured

by bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid



Series: The World Needs More Mac and Riley [1]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Because the world needs more of Mac and Riley together, Concussions, Hurt/Comfort, Mac and Riley, Minor whump, Silbing love, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 10:58:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13188645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid/pseuds/bowties_Scarves_and_Plaid
Summary: Riley and Mac get captured. Riley has to help a concussed Mac figure out how to escape.





	Captured

Riley was thrown into the room first. She stumbled against the force of the man who had shoved her. She fell to the cold floor, uninjured but angry. She stood up and turned to see Mac still struggling against the men who held him. They punched him in the stomach and then deposited him on the floor the way they had Riley.

“Mac!” Riley went over to help him, but he was already on his feet. He had a cut above his eye and his lip was bleeding, but other than that he looked okay.

“Are you alright?” He asked her, sparing a few seconds to check her over.

“I’m fine,” Riley said. He looked at her for a few more moments before apparently deciding that she was indeed fine. He stepped away from her and started doing his inventory of the room. Riley noticed that he was moving more gingerly than normal and that the cut on his forehead was still bleeding.

After his third lap around the room, Riley was convinced that Mac wasn’t really absorbing any of the information about his surroundings. She went up to him and put her hands on his shoulders.

“Mac, sit down.”

“No, I have to figure out a way…”

“Mac, I’m pretty sure you have a concussion, so please sit down before you fall down,” Riley said, putting more pressure on his shoulders.

“We have to get out Riley,” Mac said, gently pushing away her hands. His efforts were thwarted however when he stumbled and had to lean against the wall like it was the only thing holding him up.

“Alright, that’s enough. Sit down for a second and we can figure out how to get out of here together.” Riley used her most commanding voice. Mac’s eyes widened slightly at her tone and he finally gave in. He let his body slide against the wall until he was on the floor. Riley took off her flannel and sat next to him. She ignored his protests as she started wiping the blood off of his face with her shirt. When it became clear that arguing would do nothing, Mac let his head fall back against the wall and closed his eyes. As gently as she could, Riley cleaned the wound on his forehead. Once some of the blood was gone, she could see the beginnings of a colorful looking bruise. She pressed her shirt against his cut and flinched when he gasped in pain. “I know, I’m sorry, it’s just bleeding so much.”

“Head wounds tend to do that.” Mac opened up his eyes to look at her. Riley was relieved to see that his eyes were clear as they studied her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m holding a shirt to your bleeding head and you are asking if I’m okay?” Riley asked in disbelief. “Besides, we already covered that I was fine.”

“Physically yes, but I’ve been in situations like this countless times before, you haven’t.”

“Well, it’s certainly not ideal.” Riley hedged, not wanting to let know how freaked out she was. On a normal day, getting captured and locked into a tiny room with Mac wouldn’t scare her too much. She trusted Mac 100% and knew he could get out of any situation. But getting locked in a room with an injured and possibly concussed Mac was considerably more alarming. Riley may be smart, but she lacked his ingenuity with things that weren’t virtual. If it came down to it, she wasn’t sure if she could get them out of this. 

“Hey, it’s going to be okay. We’ll think of something.” Mac’s blue eyes were still fixed on her with intensity. “We’ll find a way out.”

“You have a concussion Mac, and I can’t do the things you do.” Riley found herself facing down his brotherly reassurance with harsh honesty. She knew what he was trying to do, but she didn’t need to be coddled.

“This ain’t my first rodeo kid,” Mac said, imitating Jack’s twang. Riley couldn’t help but smile and Mac returned it. “I’ve escaped worst situations concussed, shot, and drugged.” Riley honestly had no idea if he was exaggerating or not. She had certainly seen enough missions go bad to know the kinds of things Mac had to deal with. 

“It might take me a little bit longer than normal, but I’ll figure something out.” Mac had a lot of bravado for someone who was pale, sweaty and bleeding, but Riley knew better than to bet against him.

“Okay, what do you need from me?”

“Talk me through it. Tell me what you see in the room.” Mac let his eyes fall closed again and Riley looked around the room.

“Um, it looks like we are in a basement. The walls are concrete. There is one window, but it is high and small and has bars. There is an old looking door that would probably be easy to pick except it's designed to only be opened from the other side so there is no lock to pick. There are some metal pipes on the ceiling…” Riley cut off when Mac’s eyes flew open. He looked up at the pipes and then over to the door. He had the look that he gets when he has an idea, so Riley didn’t stop him when he staggered into a standing position. She watched as he leaned close to the door, examining the space between the door and the doorframe.

“Good, they don’t have a deadbolt.”

“Yes, but Mac you can’t pick it.” Riley reminded him gently. He gave her an exasperated look and looked back up at the metal on the ceiling. The pipes were the big pipes that were often in basements.

“Those pipes are made of pretty light and flexible metal. If I can cut out a piece I can slip it between the door and the lock and push open the latch.” Mac said still looking up at the pipes thoughtfully. A few seconds later, however, his face fell, “Shoot…”

“What is it, Mac?”

“They took my knife. I don’t know how to cut the pipes.” Mac said, looking around the room again, but there really wasn’t anything else.

“Here” Riley took off her boot and pulled out a black swiss army knife. It was smaller than Mac’s, but it would do the trick. Mac looked at her in surprise as she held it out to him. “You always manage to get yours taken away. I wanted to be prepared.” Riley said with a shrug. Mac broke into a smile but didn’t take the knife.

“You keep it. I can’t reach the pipes.” Mac said, putting his hands out to indicate that he would give her a boost. Riley wasn’t so sure about letting someone with a concussion lift her up, but they didn’t really have any other options. She put her foot in Mac’s hands and he lifted her up surprisingly easily. She always forgot that even though he was skinny, he was pretty strong. Mac only wobbled slightly as he instructed her. Riley followed his instructions, finding the mental easy to cut through. When she finished, Mac set her down, panting and sweating slightly.

“Good thing they didn’t spring for the good metal.” Riley joked as she handed it over.

“It’s an air vent. The only thing they need to move through it is hot air. So as long as the metal won’t melt, it doesn’t need to be strong.” Mac said, sounding more like himself as he started to flatten the metal out slightly. She was relieved to see that the cut on his head appeared to have clotted, but he was still paler than she would've liked.

“Mac, what if run into those guys after we get this door unlocked?” Riley asked nervously. She was getting pretty good at fighting, but those guys were huge. Mac could also throw a good punch, but right now he looked like he might fall over at any second. Riley had to resist the urge to force him to sit down again.

“Uhh, we improvise,” Mac said unhelpfully. “They aren’t expecting us to get out, so I am hoping that we can sneak past them” It wasn’t much of a plan, but Riley knew that they didn’t have many options. They couldn’t just wait in the room for the bad guys to come back and torture or kill them. “Ah!” Mac said triumphantly as the door swung open. He looked cautiously around before stepping out, Riley on his heels. They walked along a few corridors before finding the steps up to the first level. They reached the top and Mac had his hand on the handle when the sounds of gunfire startled them both. Mac jumped so violently that Riley had to grab him to keep him from tumbling down the stairs. He sent her a thankful smile and then turned his ear to the door.

“What is happening?” Riley asked nervously

“I think our Phoenix friends may have found us.” Mac had barely finished speaking when the door was thrown open. Luckily, Riley still had a hand on his arm, otherwise, he would’ve fallen over.

“Whoa there” Jack, who had just opened the door, put his hand on Mac’s other arm. 

“Jack!” Riley said in excitement and relief. “How did you find us?” Jack handed her phone to her and Mac’s red knife to him.

“Idiots took it away from you but never shut it off.” Jack said, “And apparently Phoenix has other nerds that can trace a phone”

“Jill” Mac and Riley both said at the same time. Riley still wasn’t sure if Jack inability to remember Jill was a joke or not.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jack said, his gaze scanning over both Riley and Mac. His gaze stopped at the cut above Mac’s eye. “That’s pretty” He commented.

“It’s nothing, can we please get out of here,” Mac said impatiently. He shrugged off Jack and Riley’s hands and pushed his way past Jack.

“Lead the way,” Jack said sarcastically. He fell into step beside Riley and dropped his voice low, “Are you alright?”

“Yes, Mac got the worst of it. I think he has a mild concussion and some bruised ribs. He still managed to get us out though.” Riley said

“Yeah, he’s tough like that,” Jack replied with a smile.

“I’m glad you came when you did, Mac’s only plan to get past those guys was to improvise,” Riley said 

“He’s also annoying like that” Jack said with a fond look at the blond ahead of them who seemed oblivious to their subject of conversation.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever be used to his ‘not sure’s and ‘probably’s,” Riley said honestly.

“He’ll wear you down eventually. You’ll learn that even if something fails, he can always find a different solution.” Jack gave a shrug “I don’t know how he does it.”

“Me either,” Riley said

*****

Riley walked out of her debriefing with Matty to find Mac and Jack arguing in the hallway.

“They are just going to tell me to take it easy and let them know if it gets worse. I don’t need to waste their time or mine.” Mac had his arms folded and was staring Jack down defiantly.

“It is just protocol man, you know that,” Jack said with a long-suffering sigh. Mac noticed her first and lifted his hand in greeting.

“Ah, you’re finally released”

“Yes,” Riley stepped closer to them, seeing right through Mac’s attempt to use her presence to distract Jack. “Are you refusing to go to medical?” She asked and Mac visually slumped.

“I’m just exercising my right to refuse medical assistance,” Mac repeated an argument he’d use countless times before.

“Yeah, that’s not gonna fly. Matty is making me go and I’m not the injured one. So how about you walk me there?” Riley put her hands on her hips to indicate no nonsense. Mac looked between her and Jack and gave a sigh similar to the one that Jack had just given.

“Yeah, alright,” He said and started walking leaving Riley to scramble a bit to catch up to him. She caught Jack’s relieved look before she fell into step next to Mac.

“Hey, I never got a chance to thank you.” She said softly. Mac paused to give her a surprised look.

“For what?”

“For getting us out.”

“Oh that,” Mac waved his hand dismissively and started walking again.

“Mac, I mean it.” Riley grabbed his arm to pull him to a stop again. “You were injured and still managed to be the one to get us out. I couldn’t have done it without you.” Something in her voice caused Mac to realize that she serious.

“You underestimate yourself, Riley,” Mac said, placing his hands on her shoulders and looking into her eyes. “I couldn't have done it without you today either. And if I had been totally out of commission I would’ve trusted you to get us out.” He gave her a smile and dropped his hands. “That being said, as long as I’m around, I’ll always get you out of tight spots.”

“I know” Riley was slightly surprised to hear that he trusted her as much as she trusted him.

“And, both of us can always count on Jack finding us,” Mac said with a smile.

“So, I guess we’re covered then.” Riley returned his smile.

“Exactly.” Mac reached out and ruffled her hair in an annoying older brother way. Riley batted his hand away but then wrapped her arms around him gently. She leaned into his chest as he put his arms around her. When they finally pulled away, Riley kept one arm wrapped around Mac’s waist and he slung his arm over her shoulder.

She didn’t comment when Mac leaned on her as they made their way to medical. She did, however, tease him when he was told that he had a mild concussion and bruised ribs. She had been right all along and let him know that with a very mature 'I told you so'. She also insisted on taking him home and making sure that he got some rest once he was there. It was the least she could do after what he’d done.

“Thanks, Riles,” Mac said sleepily when she tucked him into bed.

“You don’t have to thank me, this is what family is for,” Riley said and reached to turn off his bedside lamp, but he grabbed her wrist before she could.

“Exactly, we look out for each other. So, you don’t have to thank me for what I did today. Or go above and beyond to say thanks without the words.” Mac said and Riley couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Even exhausted and injured he still managed to be the most perceptive person she knew.

“Okay, so no more thank yous, deal?” She asked and he dropped his hand and nodded. Riley brushed a fringe of blond hair off of his forehead and then shut off the light. “Get some sleep.” She said as she retreated out of his room and shut the door.

A couple hours later she checked on him, just to make sure he was still breathing. The soft sound of his snores brought a smile to her face. Riley was still getting used to having people around her that she both trusted and had their trust. It had been just her and her mom for so long, and then it had just been her. 

Now she had this whole, weird extended family and it took some getting used to, but she was loving every second of it.


End file.
